The Kiffness

90% of SA Rock Bands quit after radio stations announce they still won’t play their music

For the last 5 years, rock bands across South Africa have been keeping their dreams of fame & fortune alive by holding onto the hope that one day national radio stations would playlist their music again. After the announcement yesterday that SABC stations would increase the local quota from 35% to 90%, rockers felt a collective glimmer of hope and rock band submissions flooded into the SABC, causing their email server to crash.

“I had to rush to Incredible Connection to get a backup drive to free up some space on our email server” explains a leading station’s playlister, “but when I got back it was too late – the sheer amount of crappy rock submissions crashed our entire server. Now we’ll definitely never play rock again.”

“When I heard that stations were choosing to play back to back runs of Mandoza’s entire discography to fill up the quota instead of one of my rock songs, I knew it was time to quit” explains a disgruntled Ard Matthews from Just Jinjer. “It almost feels as if the SABC has a personal vendetta against rock music ever since I botched the national anthem on live television. But to be fair, I don’t blame them if they do.”

Just yesterday, a hip hop beat reportedly recorded on a dude’s iPhone got playlisted nationwide and is already #15 on the charts, crushing any hope that Just Jinjer had of being relevant again. On the plus side, The Parlotones have announced that they’re now going to be a Mandoza cover band. Kahn you dig it?

Refusing to play Rock on the radio is like preventing white/black people from going to their favourite Bar,
Internet radio or get someone to start their own radio station reserved only for Rock and the occasional Metal,
So keep calm and Rock On!!!!!!!!

Hi Marisol, Thanks for your thoughts and words! I am painting and will paint something for you. What colors do you like? I am doing ok. Writing the blog helps. I have been this way for a long, long time so none of this is new to me. Ups and downs are all part of it:)Miss you too!!!

It’s SABC… But, if there are anyone there who want their rock songs played on radio go to edenvaleradio,org Send a email or follow me on twitter etc etc. Dj Jester – I’m on 2pm – 5pm every weekday and I would love to get your music to the masses. I can play it if your registered with SAMRO. So, Let’s uplift ourselves and not rely on autocratic stations that wont cater for all lovers of music. Despite whatever genre it is… If it’s South African, I will play it.

Apartheid also censored/banned certain genres of music, what I was implying was not on race,
I find those who pull the race card as a go to defence utterly pathetic
Beside’s, it’s Internet I can say whatever the hell I want,

This makes me picture an image of two fat guys laying on their backs with their pants off; one pooping out a continuous stream of kak and the other one catching that stream with his anus… and eventually shooting it right back to the first guy who, in turn, catches and returns it again.

We need an online radio with a buffering app built in so that it auto syncs content to media apps. Zaffer Radio. Can pay per month per Genre. Each song needs a simple star rating system to work out popularity and ranking. Subscription money can be split by ranking back into the artists pockets. We need to realise that it is not possible to rely on the country for anything, it is a worsening risk. Change mind sets and survive.

Radio (or should I say good radio) died a long time ago… they’re going to feel the pressure when listeners turn away, as will advertisers. Online or a new alternative station all the way. My ears bleed when I turn on the radio.